


Identities, Secrets, and Relationships

by LaraBaker101



Series: Lara Baker Series [4]
Category: NCIS: Los Angeles
Genre: Crime, Multi, Own Character, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-11-29
Updated: 2012-11-29
Packaged: 2017-11-19 20:34:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 15,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/577381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaraBaker101/pseuds/LaraBaker101
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The team have to solve the murder of a man posing as a Navy Lance Corporal. What surprises will they find and what secrets will be revealed?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Here's another one for ya! This time it will be Dara and a bit of Callensie! Just to mix it up, and keep you guys interested! Please read my other stories first, otherwise you won't know where I'm goin' with this one. Enjoy!  
> Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS: Los Angeles or any of the characters or concepts of the show. I only own Lara Baker ;)

**Chapter 1**

  
 

Agent Lara Baker woke up in her bed after a long day and an amazing dinner with her boyfriend, who was nowhere to be found.

She got out of bed, and headed down the hallway towards the kitchen.

She was almost there, when the most amazing smell hit her senses.

She entered the kitchen, and found her boyfriend, (Marty Deeks) making some pancakes for breakfast.

“Smells good.” Lara said as she wrapped her arms around Deeks’ chest.

“Morning sleepy head.” Deeks said as he expertly flipped a pancake.

“What time did you get up this morning?” Lara asked as she hopped up onto the counter top.

“I woke up at seven, and was going to leave, when Hetty called and said that we can all come in late today, because there aren’t any cases and we did such a good job yesterday.” Deeks said as he put the pancake on the plate with the others.

“Thank goodness,” Lara said, “I’m so not in the mood for another case right now.”

“Me either,” Deeks said as he went through to the dining room. “I’m kinda sick of chasing bad guys.”

“Exactly.” Lara said as she sat down at the table.

“Although, I really enjoy kicking their butts.” Deeks said as he grabbed a pancake.

“Mm, that is the best part.” Lara said as she put some cinnamon and sugar on her pancake.

“But, you know what’s even better?” Deeks asked as he took a bite of his pancake.

Lara had a smile on her face as she thought about what the answer could be. “No, tell me.” She finally said.

“Why, kicking butt with my super-hot girlfriend of course.” Deeks said as he grabbed another pancake.

This remark made Lara giggle as she replied, “Yeah well, I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t have my partner.”

The two stared into each other’s eyes for a while, until they were interrupted by the sound of Lara’s phone ringing.

Lara went over to the phone and picked it up.

“Agent Baker.” She answered.

“Hey Lara, it’s Callen, looks like the plans have changed.  We need you at NCIS ASAP.” Callen said a little breathlessly.

“Alright,” Lara said with a sigh. “I’ll be right there.”

“Alright Lara, see you then.” Callen said. “Oh, could you call Deeks and let him know of the change of plans?” Callen added as the thought occurred to him that Deeks needed to be notified.

“Sure, I’ll give him a call and let him know.” Lara said, remembering that they needed to keep their relationship a secret.

“Thanks, bye Lara.” Callen said.

“Bye Callen.” Lara said as she ended the call.

Deeks knew by the look on Lara’s face that she was not pleased.

“Let me guess, we have to go.” Deeks said as he stood from the table and went over to Lara.

“Ding, ding, ding we have a winner!” Lara replied.

“Well, at least we know why you and Callen get along so well.” Deeks said as he took Lara’s hands in his.

“Yeah, why?” Lara asked cocking her head to the side in curiosity.

“You’re both **_extremely_** sarcastic.” Deeks said with a grin.

“Oh really,” Lara began with a mischievous grin. “And what flaws do you have?” she asked.

“Oh, well, I have many flaws, but we don’t have time to list them now, as we are going to be late.” Deeks said as he kissed Lara on the forehead.

“Fine,” Lara said. “But you have to tell me about them sometime.”

“Agreed.” Deeks said. He pecked Lara and added, “I guess I’ll see you at the office.”

“Yup,” Lara replied. “I’ll see you there.”

With that Deeks grabbed all of his things and headed out the front door, leaving Lara to get ready for work.

  **xxxxx**

Once at the office, they were met with the sight of an empty bullpen.

“We can’t be that late, can we?” Lara asked Deeks as she put her things by her desk.

“I don’t know.”  Deeks answered as he put his phone in his back pocket.

The two headed upstairs and found everyone waiting in the Ops centre.

“Finally,” Callen began. “What took you two so long?”

Lara turned a deep shade of red and Deeks avoided eye contact.

At that moment Hetty eased the tension as she walked into the room and said, “What are we all standing around for when there is an open case?”

The team all looked towards the big screen and awaited the details from Eric.

“So, our vic. is 25 year old Jason-Lee Andrews.” Eric began. “He is a Lance Corporal who transferred to Pendleton a few months ago.”

“Where was the body found?” Callen asked.

“The body was found at The Dixie Hollywood.” Nell said as she brought up a picture of the crime scene.

“Looks like he fell off of the balcony.” Callen said after examining the photo.

“Or he was pushed.” Kensi added.

“Maybe,” Eric began. “But LAPD hasn’t found anything yet.”

“Looks like we’ve got to go help them out then.” Deeks said as he stood from where he was leaning against the table.

“Thanks for volunteering,” Callen began. “You and Lara go and check out the crime scene.”

Deeks felt like replying, but decided against it and signalled for Lara to follow him.

After the two had left the OPS centre, everyone turned back to the big screen and Callen asked, “Eric, does the Lance Corporal have any next of kin?”

“No,” Eric began. “He only has a girlfriend named Madison Grant.”

“Thanks Eric, looks like we’re going to question the girlfriend.” Callen and Kensi were busy leaving when Sam suddenly spoke up.

“I’ll catch up with you guys; I’ve got some things I need to take care of.”

Callen gave his partner a confused look, but didn’t ask any questions.

“Alright,” Callen began. “I guess we’ll see you later.”

With that Callen and Kensi left to go and question Madison.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS: Los Angeles or any of the characters or concepts of the show. I only own Lara Baker ;)

#  Chapter 2

 

Lara and Deeks were on their way to the crime scene.

Deeks decided to use their time at the red traffic light to ask his girlfriend some personal questions.

“So, I already know you speak fluent Russian. What other languages do you speak?” Deeks asked as he turned his head towards Lara.

“Are we playing 20 questions?” Lara asked as she finished typing on her phone.

“Maybe, maybe not.” Deeks replied.

  “Fine,” Lara began with a sigh. “I am fluent in English, Spanish, German, Russian, Portuguese, and Greek.”

“Wow,” Deeks replied with a surprised look. “Why do you need to know so many languages?”  

“Well, you never know when they might come in handy.” Lara replied with a mischievous grin.

Deeks gave her a goofy smile and was about to ask her another question when she said, “The light’s green.”

Deeks looked in front of him again and started driving to the crime scene.

They arrived and were greeted by someone they had seen recently.

“Dylan!” Deeks exclaimed as he came over to his buddy.

“Good to see you again Deeks.” Dylan replied as he gave Deeks a high five.

Lara came over to the two friends.

“Hey Lara, how have things been going since the last time we met?” Dylan asked as he shook Lara’s hand.

“Great thanks Dylan.” Lara replied with a smile.

“Well, have you got anything for us?” Deeks asked Dylan.

“Not yet,” Dylan replied. “But I was just about to head upstairs to this dude’s room to check it out.” Dylan replied as he grabbed his tools.

The threesome headed upstairs to start gathering evidence.

They entered Jason-Lee’s room and found that it was almost completely empty.

“Are we sure this guy was actually living here?” Lara asked. “This place is empty.”

“It sure is.” Deeks replied as he glanced around the room.

“Alright, well I’m gonna start looking for something important like prints or signs of a struggle over there by the window.” Dylan said as he made his way over to the window.     

“Alright man, we’ll be over here looking for stuff.” Deeks replied as he went over to Lara.

“Wathcha got there?” Deeks asked as he looked over Lara’s shoulder.

“It’s Jason-Lee’s cell phone.” Lara replied as she scrolled through the menus on Jason-Lee’s phone.

“What are you looking for?” Deeks asked.

“Phone records, message logs, anything that could help really.” Lara replied with a confused look.

“What’s up?” Deeks asked seeing the confused look on his partner’s face.

“Tell me why a guy in the Navy would need a prepaid cell, when he might be staying for a year or two.” Lara said as she carried on struggling with the little device in her hands.

“I don’t know, maybe he wanted a little bit of privacy.” Deeks replied as he put his hand on Lara’s hip.

Lara quickly turned her head to face Deeks when she felt his hand on her hip. What she didn’t realise how close their faces were. Their noses were barely inches apart, which caused Lara’s heart rate to speed up a little. Deeks nearly closed the distance between them when Dylan spoke up.

“Hey guys come and check this out.”

Lara and Deeks quickly made their way towards Dylan.

“What did you find?” Deeks asked.

“Well, you see these scuff marks over here?” Dylan asked as he pointed towards two marks on the ground.

“Yeah?” Lara replied.

“Well it suggests that two people were fighting here on the balcony.” Dylan said.

“Does it prove if our guy was pushed or not?” Deeks asked.

“Not exactly. It doesn’t prove anything, but it suggests so.” Dylan replied as he grabbed some things out of his kit. He took a fine powder and applied it to the bars at the edge of the balcony.

“What’s that stuff for dude?” Deeks asked as he watched his friend.

“It’s so that I can find some prints on the pole, if there are any.” Dylan said as he took a brush and spread the powder.

“But won’t it only work in the dark?” Lara asked as she came over to get a closer look at what Dylan was doing.

“Not necessarily. Deeks if you could just grab that sheet over there and hold it up here, I should be able to use this light to see the prints.” Dylan said as he grabbed his huge light and got ready to use it.

Deeks grabbed the sheet and headed over to one side of where Dylan had put the powder.

“Lara could you just hold this end of the sheet?” Deeks asked as he held the sheet out to Lara.

“Sure.” Lara said as she grabbed the other side of the sheet.

The two partners held the sheet up for Dylan. He held his light up over the prints and prayed that his idea would work. It took a while, but eventually the powder started to turn a faint blue colour. Sure enough there were a few sets of prints on the bars.

“Yes!” Dylan said as he took some pictures of the prints. Once Dylan had taken the pictures, he started to memorize the patterns of the various prints.

“OK, thanks guys you can put the sheet down.” Dylan said as he started to pack away his tools.

The two partners put the sheet down and went over to Dylan.

“That was pretty awesome, but how are you gonna process the prints?” Deeks asked Dylan.

Dylan took a roll of tape out of his tool box and replied, “Easy, I lift the prints off of the pole with this lifting tape.”

“Oh, that’s pretty cool.” Deeks said.

“I remember Abby did something similar in DC.” Lara replied as she crossed her arms over her chest.

Deeks gave Lara a questioning look, but decided to voice his question on the way out.

“Well, I better get going if you guys want results.” Dylan said interrupting the silence.

“I guess we’ll see you later then.” Deeks replied as he gave his buddy a high five.

“Awesome,” Dylan said. “See you later Lara.”

“See you around.” Lara replied as she mimicked Deeks and gave Dylan a high five.

With that Dylan grabbed all of his tools and left the room.

Deeks turned to Lara just as Dylan was out of earshot. He looked at her with a serious expression and asked, “So, who’s Abby and what did you do in DC?”

Lara looked at Deeks with a confused expression as she said, “Well Sherlock Holmes, Abby is the forensic analyst for the DC team. I was there when I had to assist with the Viper case and decided to stay there for three years after, because I liked the area.”

Deeks looked at Lara for a while not knowing what to say. Eventually Lara spoke up, because she wasn’t enjoying the awkward silence.

“Deeks, are you OK?” Lara asked as she touched Deeks’ arm.

Deeks suddenly spoke as if he’d just been woken up from a dream. “Uh, yeah I was just thinking.”

“Yeah well, we have to get going.” Lara replied as she started to walk past Deeks.

Deeks suddenly grabbed Lara’s arm and turned her so quickly that she actually bumped into his chest. Lara didn’t know what to say, she was stunned at just how close they were.

“I’m sorry about the tone I used with you earlier.” Deeks said as he cupped Lara’s face. “I guess I was just a little jealous.”

“Of a girl named Abby?” Lara asked as she finally snapped out of her daze.

“Well, yeah, I guess so. It’s just that I wondered what you got up to in DC, that’s all.” Deeks said as he looked into Lara’s eyes.

“Well you don’t need to be jealous.” Lara said as she put her hands over Deeks’. “I’m here in LA now, with the cutest, funniest guy I’ve ever met.”

Deeks had a worried look as he asked, “You do mean me right?”

Lara had to laugh at this remark and answered, “Of course it’s you.”

Deeks gave his goofy smile and was about to lean down to kiss Lara when Dylan walked back into the room and said, “I just forgot my…” but was cut off when he saw the two leaning closer to kiss each other.

As soon as they heard Dylan’s voice, the two jumped apart as if shocked by lightning.

“Um, we were just leaving.” Deeks said as he looked towards the floor.

“Right,” Dylan said, dragging out the word a little. “I’ll just grab my tape measure and then I’ll be going.”

Dylan grabbed the tape measure and winked at his buddy as he walked out the door.

Lara turned to Deeks and slapped him on the arm, somewhat playfully as she said, “You… I… what… We almost got caught!”

“Yeah I know,” Deeks replied sheepishly. “Maybe we should just go before someone else comes in here.”

“Good idea.” Lara said.

Deeks shook his head with a smile on his face and said, “There’s that sarcasm again.” which earned him another slap from Lara.

The two made their way out of the building and went over to the yellow tape where the body was.

“Poor guy,” Lara said as she put on a pair of rubber gloves. “I wonder who did this to him.”

Deeks knelt down next to her and said, “Maybe this note in his hand means something.”

Lara looked at the little slip in the man’s hand and looked at Deeks with a confused expression.

Deeks took the little slip out of the man’s hand and unfolded it slowly. Inside it read:

 

**_You have double crossed me_ **

**_For the last time!_ **

**_If you couldn’t get your priorities straight,_ **

**_Then I would make them straight_ **

**_FOR YOU!!!_ **

 

Lara and Deeks looked at each other with shocked expressions as soon as they had both read the note.

“Should I call Callen and tell him about the note?” Lara asked Deeks.

“Yeah, you do that I’m gonna ask Dylan if he can lift any prints off of this.” Deeks said as he stood to go and look for Dylan.

Lara stood and took her phone out right away. She hit number two on speed dial and waited for Callen to answer.

“Hey Lara, is everything OK?” Callen asked as he left the living room where they were questioning Madison.

“Yeah we got motive once we found out whoever the killer is.” Lara said as she walked over to her car and sat on the hood.

“Really, what did you find?” Callen asked.

“Well, we found a note in the victim’s hand that sounded petty threatening.” Lara replied.

“Yeah, what did the note say?” Callen asked with a hint of curiosity.

  **xxxxx**

“Well, it said, ‘You have double crossed me for the last time! If you couldn’t get your priorities straight, then I would make them straight for you.’” Lara said as she remembered everything she had read on the note.

“Yep, that definitely sounds like a reason for killing someone. OK, you and Deeks head back to NCIS and Kensi and I will just finish up here.” Callen said.

“OK, we’ll see you guys at NCIS. Wait a minute, where’s Sam?” Lara asked as her brain registered what Callen had said.

“Um, I don’t really know where he is.” Callen replied with concern clear in his voice.

“OK, well we’ll see you later.” Lara said as she saw Deeks coming her way.

“Yeah, see you later.” Callen said as he hung up the phone.

Lara put her phone in her back pocket as she climbed off of the hood of the car. Deeks came over to her and asked, “Hey did you call Callen?”

“Yeah I did,” Lara replied. “He said that we should head back to NCIS and he and Kensi will be there soon.”

Deeks gave a nod but changed quickly to a worried expression when he realised that Lara had only mentioned Callen and Kensi.

“Where’s Sam?” Deeks asked.

“I don’t know where he is.” Lara replied. “Callen said that he doesn’t know either.”

Deeks gave Lara a look of concern as he said, “Well, we better head back to NCIS.”

“Yeah, let’s go.” Lara replied.

  The two got into the car and headed back to NCIS.

**_Meanwhile…_ **

Callen came back into the living room after talking to Lara on the phone. Kensi stood from her seat and came over to Callen.

“What did Lara say?” Kensi asked.

“How’d you know…?” Callen began, because he didn’t remember telling Kensi who he was talking to. “Never mind, anyway Lara said that they found a note in the Lance Corporal’s hand.”

“What did it say?” Kensi asked.

Callen told Kensi what he had heard from Lara and the two stood in silence for a while thinking about what the note could mean. They were about to head back to the living room when they heard a scream and a crash. Both Callen and Kensi drew their weapons and headed to the kitchen.

“Madison, are you OK?” Callen asked as he entered the kitchen.

“Yeah, but you people might wanna double check you’re info.” Madison said from the kitchen.

“What do you mean?” Callen asked as he holstered his weapon.

Kensi entered the room just as Madison said, “Well, here’s my boyfriend, Jason-Lee, standing right here in front of me.” as she hugged her boyfriend.

Callen and Kensi shared a confused look as they looked at the man holding Madison.

“Wait, but he looks nothing like the ID photo we looked at this morning.” Kensi said as she came to stand next to Callen.

“Yeah, I know,” Callen said as he looked ‘Jason-Lee’ up and down a few times. “Excuse me, but I’m Special Agent Callen and this Special Agent Kensi Blye, we’re with NCIS.” Callen added as he showed the man his badge.

“Oh right,” the man said as he came over and shook Callen’s hand. “I’m Lance Corporal Jason-Lee Andrews.”

“Can I please have some identification?” Kensi asked.

“Uh yeah, sure,” Jason-Lee replied as he handed Kensi his ID. “May I ask why you people need my ID?”

Kensi looked at the ID and handed back to Jason-Lee. “Well, we found a man this morning that was supposedly named Jason-Lee Andrews.”

“You mean he stole my identity?” Jason-Lee asked.

“Looks that way,” Callen began. “Where have you been for the last few days while this guy has been parading around as you?” He asked.

“I went to Arizona to see some family members.” Jason-Lee replied.

“Can anyone confirm that?” Kensi asked.

“My CO said he would fill out the vacation request for me.” Jason-Lee replied.

“Do you know if he actually did?” Callen asked.

“My CO and I have been friends for quite a few years, so I trusted that he would do it.” Jason-Lee defended.

“But you never actually checked to make sure if he had actually done it or not.” Kensi said.

“Well, no.” Jason-Lee said a little sheepishly.

“So you just left and this guy took your place.” Callen said as he took a seat at the table in the kitchen.

“But that means that he would need to know that you were leaving for a vacation.” Kensi said as she leaned against the table.

“True Kens, did you anyone know that you were going away on a vacation, or when you’d be back?” Callen asked glancing in Kensi’s direction for a while.

“No, I didn’t tell anyone, not even Madison.” Jason-Lee said, sheepishly adding Madison’s name.

“Is that true?” Kensi asked Madison.

“Yes Agent, this is a real shock to me.” Madison replied.

“In that case, it looks like we need to find out who this imposter is.” Callen said.

“I guess so.” Jason-Lee replied.

“We’re gonna have to take you back to our safe house in the meantime though.” Callen said as he stood from the table.

“With all due respect Agent Callen, I’d like to stay here with my girlfriend for a while.” Jason-Lee said as he pulled Madison into his arms.

“I’m sorry Lance Corporal,” Callen began. “But if the people who killed the identity thief found out you’re back, they might just come after you too.”

Jason-Lee seemed to think this over a little but replied, “Fine, as long as Madison can come with me.”

Callen and Kensi shared a look and Callen replied, “Sure, Madison can come with you.”

“Thank you Agent,” Jason-Lee replied as he shook Callen’s hand. “I just don’t want Madison to get hurt either.”

“We understand,” Kensi replied before Callen could speak. “If you’d please come with me, we really need to get going.”

Callen stood speechless as Kensi lead Madison and Jason-Lee to the car. He followed behind the three and turned to Kensi as she closed Madison’s door.

“Is something wrong?” Kensi asked as she turned to Callen.

“No,” Callen began. “I just wanted to know what happened back there, that’s all.” Callen asked.

“Well, I figured we need to get going if we want to find out who this imposter is.” Kensi replied.

“Yeah, well I’m the team leader, so I decide who goes where and when.” Callen said with a little more bite than he’d intended.

“Fine, I just won’t say another word.” Kensi said stubbornly as she opened the passenger side door to get into the car.

“Kens, that’s not what I meant…” Callen began, but was cut off by Kensi slamming her car door.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS: Los Angeles or any of the characters or concepts of the show. I only own Lara Baker ;)

#  CHAPTER 3

 

Lara was busy typing on her laptop, Eric and Nell were in the Ops centre doing something that involved speaking geek, and Deeks was trying to do some silly card trick that just wouldn’t come right.

Eventually Lara couldn’t take Deeks’ grunting and groaning and asked, “What are you trying to do?”

Deeks didn’t even look up as he replied, “I’m trying to do a card trick I read about on the internet, but it’s just not working.”

“Well could you try somewhere else please; I’m trying to write up a report.” Lara said with a sigh as she continued typing. 

 Deeks was busy struggling again and decided to give up when he finally got it right.

“Yes!” Deeks said triumphantly as he pumped his fist in the air.

Lara was busy focusing on her report, when Deeks rudely shut the lid of her laptop closed.

“Hey, I was busy with…” Lara was about to complain but was cut off by an overly excited Deeks.

“Yeah I know, just check this out first.” Deeks said as he showed Lara his cards.

Lara heaved a sigh as she leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest, signalling for Deeks to demonstrate his ‘amazing’ trick.

“Alright,” Deeks began. “I’m going to shoot the pack of cards from my right hand all the way into my left hand without a single card landing out of place.”

Deeks took the pack of cards into his right hand and gently applied pressure to the two ends of the pack. All of a sudden every single card shot into the air, landing everywhere except into Deeks’ hand.

“Oh come on.” Deeks said with a disappointed expression.

Lara couldn’t help the giggle that escaped her lips.

“Hey, at least you made me laugh.” Lara said as he put her hand on Deeks’ cheek. “Here, let me help you pick up all of your cards.” Lara added as she stood and walked round her desk to bend down and help Deeks pick up the cards that were strewn all over the floor. They bent down and picked up every single card.

“Here you go.” Lara said as she stood and handed Deeks her portion of the cards.

“Thanks,” Deeks said as he took the cards. “I’m glad I could make you laugh.” He added as he tucked a strand of hair behind Lara’s ear.

The two stood in silence for a while just staring into each other’s eyes until they heard Callen and Kensi walk through the door.

“Kens, I said I was sorry.” Callen said to a silent Kensi. 

Deeks and Lara shared a brief glance as they saw Kensi sit down with a ‘huff’.

“Did you guys find anything else besides the letter?” Callen asked Deeks and Lara.

“Just that he used a prepaid cell with absolutely nothing on it.” Lara replied as she leaned against her desk.

“What did you guys find out?” Deeks asked as he put his pack of cards into his back pocket.

“We found out that the guy you saw wasn’t the real Lance Corporal.” Callen said.

“What do you mean?” Lara asked a little confused.

“The real Lance Corporal is alive and well in our boat house.” Callen said.

“But then who’s the guy we saw?” Deeks asked as he joined Lara.

“We’re gonna have to ask Eric that question.” Callen said.

They were sitting in silence when Deeks’ phone started ringing. Deeks took his phone and walked off to one side of the room to answer it.

“I wonder who that could be.” Lara said as she saw Deeks walk off.            

“I don’t know, maybe it’s his new girlfriend.” Callen said as he sat down at his desk.

Lara almost blew their cover, but mentally stopped herself and said, “Yeah, maybe.” instead.

Deeks came back after a while and said, “That was Dylan, LAPD’s forensic analyst.”

Lara quickly became interested and asked, “What did he say?”

“He said that he tested the prints.” Deeks said as he put his phone in his pocket. “There were two sets of prints, one belonged to a man named Akim Kafni and the other still hasn’t been ID-ed yet.

“Maybe Akim Kafni is the imposter.” Lara said.

“Or the attacker.” Callen added.

At that moment Eric and Nell came down the stairs in a hurry and Eric said, “Callen, we have a problem. The guy we found this morning isn’t Jason-Lee, I ran a facial rec. and the results say that his name is…” but Eric was cut off.

“Akim Kafni.” Callen said.

“How’d you guys know?” Nell asked.

“We have the real Lance Corporal in our boat house.” Lara said.

“What else do we know about Akim, Eric?” Deeks asked.

“We know he’s on the terrorist watch list, but we can’t confirm if he’s a member of al-Qaeda.” Eric said as he read some info off of his tablet.

“Well find out, we need to know what this guy was doing when he stole Jason-Lee’s identity.” Callen said. 

“I’m on it.” Eric said as he started frantically typing on his tablet.

“Lara, you come with me.” Callen said as he pointed to Lara. “Let’s go to the boat house and question Jason-Lee.”

“What about me?” Deeks asked.

“You stay here and see if you can find anything.” Callen replied.

“Find anything on what?” Deeks asked again with a bit of confusion.

“Just anything that could help with the case.” Callen replied as he started walking out the door.

Lara looked at Deeks and shrugged her shoulders before following Callen.

  **xxxxx**

Lara was sitting at the table and Callen was pacing up and down.

“Have you ever heard the name Akim Kafni?” Callen asked Jason-Lee.

Jason-Lee thought about it before he replied, “No, I’ve never heard that name before. Is it important?”

“He’s the guy who was found dead this morning at your hotel.” Lara said as she showed Jason-Lee a picture of Akim.

Jason-Lee looked at the picture and said, “No, I haven’t seen this guy before. Plus, I stay in an apartment building, not a hotel room.”

Lara and Callen’s eyes met and Callen said, “The hotel room was booked in your name for a week.”

“Well, I certainly didn’t book it.” Jason-Lee replied a little angrily.

“Then who did?” Callen asked as he came over to the table and sat down. “Who else knows about your bank details and has access to them?” Callen added.

“Nobody.” Jason-Lee replied.   

“Exactly, so it could only have been you.” Callen added, lowering his voice a little.

Lara knew that she had to do something fast so she said, “OK, I think we’ll take a little break.” and pulled Callen out of the interrogation room.

 “What was that?” Lara asked Callen angrily.

“What was what?” Callen replied a little harshly as he began making himself a cup of coffee.

“Don’t play dumb with me Callen.” Lara began as she crossed her arms over her chest. “In the interrogation room you completely blew up. Why?” Callen seemed not to pay any attention as he finished making his coffee and took a sip.

“Did you even hear a word I just said?” Lara asked angrily.

Callen still didn’t reply.

“You know what, just because you’re mad that you like Kensi doesn’t mean you need to take it out on everyone else.” Lara said crossly as she sat down at the table.

This statement caught Callen’s attention.

“What did you say?” he asked as he turned to face Lara.

“Oh yeah, sure, now you listen.” Lara said sarcastically.

“Yeah, I’m listening now tell me what you said.” Callen said, ignoring Lara’s sarcasm.

“I said you’re angry.” Lara said still looking away from Callen.

“Yeah, but why?” Callen asked as he put his coffee on the table.

“Because you like Kensi,” Lara began as she met Callen’s eyes. “But you don’t want to admit it.”

Callen burst into (nervous) laughter as he replied, “That’s crazy, I don’t like Kensi.”

 Lara rolled her eyes and said, “Obviously you do if you just burst into nervous laughter.”

“Oh please, that’s ridiculous,” Callen began as she took a sip from his coffee. “Besides, I’m the team leader.”

“So what,” Lara replied as she stood from the table. “If you like someone you should tell them.”

“I can’t.” Callen replied angrily.

“Why not?” Lara asked Callen.

“Because,” Callen yelled. “I don’t know how.

“You don’t know how to what?” Lara asked softly.

“I don’t know how to tell her.” Callen replied as he put his coffee down. “Besides, she’s a whole lot younger than me. She doesn’t feel the same way either.”

“You don’t know that,” Lara began as she put her hand on Callen’s forearm. “Besides, you’re only as old or young as you feel in here.” Lara added as she put her hand on Callen’s chest.

“Thanks.” Callen said as he pulled Lara into a friendly hug.

As the two pulled apart, Eric’s face appeared on the big screen TV.

“Hey guys,” Eric said. “Am I interrupting?”

“No,” Callen replied. “What did you find Eric?”

“Well, still nothing on the al-Qaeda angle, but I did trace the numbers on Akim’s cell phone records, with some help from Nell.” Eric said as Nell came into view.

“Who did the numbers belong to?” Lara asked.

“That’s the problem,” Nell said from her seat next to Eric. “They were burn phones.”

“Can you at least figure out who bought the phones and where?” Callen asked.

“I’m afraid not Callen.” Eric said.

“Well, maybe I can try.” Lara said.

“Do you know how to do that kind of thing?” Eric asked.

“Actually, I was the tech junkie for my unit in Oregon.” Lara replied proudly. “So maybe I can get some more info.”

“That’s good enough for me.” Callen said. “We’ll head back now and you can join Eric and Nell in the Ops centre.”

“Sure thing.” Lara said as she and Callen left for NCIS.

  **xxxxx**

Once they had arrived at the Ops centre, Callen and Lara made their way to join Eric and Nell.

Once upstairs, Eric showed Lara where she could work and watched Lara try her best.

Lara sat for a while and typed away, occasionally pausing to think or wait for a menu to come up.

Eventually Eric thought that Lara should give up hope and was about to say something when Lara suddenly yelled, “Yes, I own you baby!”

“Did you find out where the phones were bought?” Callen asked as he shot up and joined Lara.

“Yep, they were bought in a pawn shop in downtown LA.” Lara said as she sat back in her chair.

Callen motioned for Lara to follow him as he started to make his way to the door.

When both agents were downstairs, Callen started making orders.

“Deeks, Kensi, you two check out the pawn shop where the phones were bought, Eric will send you the address. Lara you come with me, we’re going to go and look for Sam.”

With that Callen left the bullpen with gun in hand.

Lara and Deeks shared a brief glance of confusion but headed to their duties.

Lara followed Callen out and Kensi and Deeks made their way to the parking lot.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS: Los Angeles or any of the characters or concepts of the show. I only own Lara Baker ;)

#  Chapter 4

 

Deeks and Kensi arrived at the pawn shop and headed inside. It was a smallish family owned store with many different things for sale at very reasonable prices. Deeks and Kensi walked up to the counter and found an old man sitting there reading a fishing magazine.

“Hi, can I help you with anything?” the man asked with a broad smile on his face.

“Yes, we’re with NCIS and we’re busy investigating a murder.” Kensi said as she showed the man her badge.

“Oh, well I promise I don’t keep dead bodies in the back of **_my_** store.” The man said with a look of concern.

“I’m sure you don’t,” Deeks said kindly. “We were wondering if you happened to know who bought a phone here recently.”

“Well, there were two men in here a couple of days ago who bought some phones.” The man said as he pulled a little book out from under his cash register.

“Did they have Semitic features?” Kensi asked.

“Now that I think about it, yes they did. They also had large tattoos on their forearms.” The man said.

“Do you maybe have some security tapes that we could see?” Deeks asked curiously.

“No, sorry my son was getting round to installing cameras, but I suppose he never did.” The man said regretfully.

“OK, thank you very much for your help.” Kensi said as she got out her phone and made her way to the door.

“You’re welcome.” The man said as he picked his magazine up and started reading again.

As soon as they had exited the store, Kensi started dialling on her phone. After a while there was an answer on the other side.

“Hey Kensi, what do you need?” Nell asked from the Ops centre.

“Hey Nell, could you and Eric see if you could get anything off of the street cams outside of the pawn shop?” Kensi asked as she stood next to her car.

“Sure, we’ll see what we can do.” Nell replied.

“Thanks Nell, we’ll see you later.” Kensi said.

“See you later.” Nell replied as she started typing.

“Where to now?” Deeks asked from inside of the car.

“Back to the office I guess.” Kensi replied as she sat down in the driver’s seat.

“Cool.” Deeks replied as he put on his seatbelt.

“I just hope Callen isn’t there.” Kensi muttered under her breath as she started the car.

  **xxxxx**

Lara and Callen were sitting in Callen’s car outside of a beautiful park. Callen was looking somewhere in the distance with a pair of binoculars. Neither of them had said anything for a while.

Eventually Lara couldn’t take the silence anymore and decided to say something.

“What are we looking for exactly?” Lara asked as she turned to look at Callen.

“We’re waiting for Sam.” Callen stated calmly.

“But I don’t see him anywhere.” Lara replied a little impatiently.

“Just wait, he’ll be here soon.” Callen replied as he put his binoculars back into their case.

“How do you know he’s actually going to come to this exact park?” Lara asked.

Callen looked at Lara with a knowing smirk. “I just know my partner that’s all.” he said.

“Oh, you know exactly where he’s gonna be and when he’s gonna be there?” Lara asked unbelievingly as she crossed her arms over her chest.

“Pretty much,” Callen replied. “Just like you seem to know exactly what Deeks is thinking sometimes.”

Lara blushed a little as she replied, “No I don’t.”

“Oh come on,” Callen replied with a little chuckle. “Like you two aren’t always thinking the same thing, talking to each other, and doing things together.”

Lara was a little nervous and stuttered as she replied, “Th-That is so not true.”

Callen was about to reply when he saw what he was looking for. Sam came into view and he appeared to be talking on his phone. Callen took out his binoculars and started looking towards Sam to see if he could make out what Sam was saying.

Lara reached into the back seat and brought her laptop out and started typing. She was clicking away when Callen asked, “What are you doing?”

Lara replied without looking up from her laptop, “I’m trying to trace the call and see who Sam is talking to.”

Callen had a confused expression on his face as he asked, “Can you actually do that from your laptop?” 

“Yep, as long as I press the right keys.” Lara replied a little sarcastically.

Callen didn’t even bother replying to Lara’s sarcasm but kept watching his friend instead. Sam was now pacing as he spoke and seemed as if he was little annoyed with the person on the other side of the call. He eventually decided to take a seat on the little wooden bench that was placed on the lovely green grass.

Lara was busy typing rather rapidly and focusing on the screen as if the rest of the world had just disappeared. She was busy typing when she suddenly paused and looked up from her laptop. She had a little bit of a blank expression on her face as she looked out to where Sam was sitting on the bench in the warm sunshine.

“What’s wrong?” Callen asked Lara as he put his binoculars in his lap.

Lara seemed as if she was going to explode with anger as she replied, “I can’t believe it, he’s actually talking to my brother.”

Callen froze in his seat as he heard the words come out of Lara’s mouth.

“He’s talking to your brother?” Callen managed to choke out. “I didn’t even know you had a bother.”

But Callen received no reply from Lara, because she was already getting out of the car. Callen quickly got out of the car and ran over to Lara.

“What the heck are you doing?” Callen asked angrily as he tried to keep his voice low and keep and eye on Sam at the same time.  

“I’m going to go and ask Sam why he’s talking to my brother.” Lara said angrily managing to walk, if possible, faster.

Callen decided that if Lara walked any faster, or talked any louder then Sam would see them. Callen decided that he had to stop Lara before she reached Sam, so he pulled Lara to one side, beside a tall tree. Lara was so surprised that she didn’t even protest when Callen pulled her aside.

“You can’t do that.” Callen said angrily with a low voice.

“And why not?” Lara asked just as fiercely.

“Because we don’t know what Sam is talking about with your brother and Sam doesn’t know we’re here.” Callen said a little more calmly than before.

“If you’re insinuating that my brother is involved in shady business, then I’m going to have to kick your ass.” Lara said with a look in her eyes of pure honesty and concern for her brother.

“I’m not insinuating anything,” Callen began slowly and softly. “I’m just saying that Sam might be talking to your brother about something private and personal.”

Lara couldn’t help the humourless chuckle that escaped her lips. “Says the guy who was following his friend and spying on him with a pair of binoculars.”

“Look, I’m just looking out for my buddy.” Callen said angrily. “He and the rest of the team are the only family I have left.”

Lara could see that Callen was trying not to give too much away, but still replied with fire in her eyes, “Yeah, well my brother is important to me too. He’s my only family and the only person I trust.”

Callen could see the tears threatening to spill over in Lara’s eyes. Callen didn’t know what to say, so instead he just looked out to where Sam was still sitting, now with a blank expression.

“I understand what you mean and I know it’s tough, but we need to approach this calmly.” Callen said, putting his hand on Lara’s shoulder.

Lara was silent for a while but spoke up saying, “You’re right, I’m sorry.”

“That’s OK, I’m sorry too.” Callen said as he pulled Lara into a brotherly hug.

When the two had broken apart, both were calmer than they had been before. Callen looked out to check and see if his buddy was still sitting on the bench. Thankfully he was.

“Alright, let’s go out there calmly and ask Sam who he was talking to.” Callen said.

“But we already know who he was talking to.” Lara said with a confused expression.

“Yeah, but Sam doesn’t know that.” Callen replied.

“Right,” Lara replied. “OK, let’s go.”

Callen shook his head and motioned for Lara to follow him.

The two walked over to Sam slowly. Sam noticed them coming over and looked towards his buddy with a smile.

“I’m not even gonna ask how you found me.” Sam said, standing up as he spoke to his buddy.

“In that case I won’t tell you.” Callen replied with a smirk.

“Hey Lara, did he drag you into this?” Sam asked Lara with a smile.

“Pretty much.” Lara replied, returning the smile.

Sam and Callen sat down on the bench and Lara leaned against it. Callen turned to his buddy and asked, “So, who were you talking to on the phone?”

Sam looked at a couple walking hand in hand in the distance. “I was just talking to a buddy from the Navy that’s all.” Sam replied calmly.

“It looked like you were pretty ticked off with him. What’s his name?” Callen asked as he glanced over to see Lara looking at the ground

“It’s nothing important G.” Sam said a little annoyed that Callen was pushing so hard.

“You can tell me anything Sam.” Callen said as he turned to face his buddy.

“I know G,” Sam began. “His name is Lieutenant Michael Baker; he’s an old buddy from the Navy.” Sam said as he leaned back against the back of the bench.

“Was he on your team?” Callen asked again and he could feel Lara tensing up beside him.

“No, he had just joined the Navy when I was thinking about leaving, but we got to know each other and really hit it off. We’ve stayed in touch ever since.” Sam said as he breathed in the lovely fresh air.

“That sounds nice.” Callen said.

“Do you know who he’s related to?” Lara asked from the side lines.

“No,” Sam began. “He doesn’t really talk about his family that much.”

Lara sat up straight and looked over to Sam as she asked, “Well, doesn’t the surname sound a little familiar?”

Sam seemed to think it over a bit but managed to put two and two together. “Are you related to him?” Sam asked with a little bit of surprise in his voice.

Lara looked to Callen first before replying, “Yep, he’s actually my brother.”

Sam seemed a little shocked before he replied, “I just thought that the name was a coincidence.”

“Yeah, well it’s not.” Lara added a little harshly. “What were you two talking about?”

Callen gave Lara a look of warning, but Sam replied a little bit sheepishly, “Well, he was telling me that he was asked to be part of a task force and that their leader thought that I would be a good addition to the team.”

The three sat in silence for a while thinking about different things. Sam was thinking about what he was going to do, Callen was thinking about what his buddy was going to do, and Lara was wondering why her brother hadn’t told her about this offer.

Eventually Callen asked, “So what are you going to do?”

Sam seemed as if he was thinking it over but replied with a little bit of uncertainty. “I really don’t know what I’m going to do.”

They sat in silence once again just watching the people and listening to the birds chirping. All of a sudden Lara’s phone started ringing. Sam and Callen turned expectantly. Lara took out her phone and opened the text message on the screen that read:

**_We r back at NCIS_ **

**_Nothing 2 report yet._ **

**_How r things going on Ur end?_ **

**_C u soon_ **

**_Deeks_ **

Lara smiled as she read the text and looked over to see Sam and Callen waiting for her to share.

“It’s from Deeks, he and Kensi are back at NCIS, but they didn’t find anything yet.” Lara said before she typed a reply that said:

**_Things r cool_ **

**_Will b heading back soon_ **

**_C u then_ **

**_Lara xxx_ **

“Guess we should start going then.” Callen said as he stood up from his seat on the bench.

“You guys go ahead, I’ll catch up.” Sam said as he stood and took his phone out of his pocket.

“Sam,” Callen began, but was interrupted by his buddy.

“I just have to make some phone calls G, I promise.” Sam said.

“Fine, see you back at NCIS.” Callen said as he and Lara headed back to his car.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS: Los Angeles or any of the characters or concepts of the show. I only own Lara Baker ;)

#  Chapter 5

 

Callen and Lara arrived back at NCIS and were greeted with the piercing whistle of Eric the techno guru.

“You guys are just in time.” Deeks said as he came to greet the two agents.

“Apparently.” Lara said as she came over to Deeks with a little smile.

Callen made his way upstairs behind Kensi who was still giving him the cold shoulder.

“What’s up with them?” Deeks asked as he and Lara stood at the bottom of the stairs.

“Personal stuff.” Lara said, trying not to give too much away.

“What’s up with you?” Deeks asked suddenly as he and Lara started to make their way upstairs.

“What do you mean?” Lara asked.

“You seem upset.” Deeks said as he and Lara reached the top of the stair case.

“Nothing.” Lara replied nonchalantly as she walked into the Ops centre.

Everyone was standing around the table placed in the centre of the dimly lit room.

Lara stood at the back of the room and Deeks stood fairly close to her.

“What have you got Eric?” Callen asked the tech geek.

“Well, we checked the street cams outside of the pawn shop and we came up with these guys.” Eric said as he played the video that was on the screen.

On the screen two men met a third man waiting in a black van in the warm Los Angeles sunset. The third man got out of the car and started to talk to the other two. They handed out the three black cell phones and the man who had gotten out of the car received an ID book and driver’s license from one of the other men. The only man who looked at the camera was the one who had gotten out of the car and immediately the face was recognised.

“That’s the guy who impersonated Lance Corporal Andrews.” Kensi said as she realised who it was. 

“Yeah,” Eric began as he zoomed in on the photo of the man on the screen.

“But, since we all know that his name is Akim Kafne, we’re running a facial recognition to see who the others really are.” Nell added.

“How long do you think the facial recognition will take?” Callen asked with curiosity as he tried to watch Kensi discretely.

“It depends; we didn’t really get a good shot of the other two.” Eric said somewhat sheepishly.

“Alright,” Callen said as he stood from the table and made his way to the door. “Let me know when you find something.” With that Callen left the room.

Everyone in the room was little surprised with their leader’s sudden departure. NO one really knew what was going on or what they were to do now. Suddenly Hetty entered the room and said, “Mr Callen is under a tremendous amount of pressure. Eric, Nell you two just work on finding out who this imposter really is, the rest of you can catch up on your overdue paper work.” After her grand ‘speech’, the petite woman left the others to get back to their duties.

“Well, I think Hetty’s advice is a good idea, so I’m going to start on my paper work.” Kensi said as she left the room.

“We’ll just get back to the facial rec tests.” Eric said as he and Nell went over to their computers with tablets in hand.

“I have to make a phone call.” Lara said as she left the Ops centre. 

Deeks quickly followed Lara out of the Ops centre and took her hand in his. Lara looked at Deeks as if to ask ‘what are you doing?’ with her eyes. “Hey, can we talk for a second?” Deeks asked as he slowly started tugging at Lara’s hand.

Lara seemed as if she was thinking about it before she answered, “Fine, but not here.”

Deeks gave a brief nod and looked around for somewhere they could talk in private. He seemed to have thought of the perfect spot and said, “Come on, I know the perfect coffee shop we could go to.”

Lara looked a little puzzled as she replied, “But we have work to do.”

“Oh, come on.” Deeks said. “The only work people are doing right now is stale paper work. Besides we’ve been working hard all day. We deserve a lunch break.” Deeks gave her a goofy grin to try and win her over. Lara couldn’t help the smile that was slowly spreading across her features as well.

“Fine,” Lara replied. “You know I can’t resist that smile.”

Deeks pumped his fist triumphantly in the air and started tugging Lara by her hand gently towards the staircase. They briefly let go of each other’s hand as they made their way down the staircase and into the bullpen, where Callen and Kensi were doing their paper work.

“We’re going to take our lunch break.”Deeks said as he grabbed some things from his desk drawer.

“Sure, we’ll let you know if we find anything.” Callen said as he briefly looked up from his work.

“Awesome.” Deeks said as he motioned for Lara to follow him.

The two made their way to the door and took Deeks’ car to a picturesque little cafe on the beach. The cafe was quite busy and had a cottage-like theme to it. It was decorated with pictures of previous customers on the walls and had lots of old items in it.

“Wow, this place is beautiful.” Lara said as she and Deeks walked into the cafe hand in hand.

“This cafe has the best coffee and cake in town.” Deeks said with a smile as he took a deep breath.

A tall, young, blond waitress came over to the two and said, “Hi, table for two?”

“Yes please, and preferably one by the window.” Deeks said to the waitress.

“Right this way.” The waitress said as she grabbed some menus and led the two to a table in the corner.  

Deeks and Lara sat down at the table. They see the beach through the window, and feel the beautiful sunshine on their bodies. The waitress handed them the menus and asked their orders.

“I’ll have a cup of your delicious coffee.” Deeks said as he gave the waitress a charming smile.

“I’ll just have a cup of tea.” Lara said.

The waitress wrote down their orders and went to fulfil her duties.

Deeks looked at Lara with a curious smile and asked, “Tea?”

Lara shrugged as she replied, “I don’t really like coffee that much.”

Deeks seemed to drop the issue as he looked over the menu. Lara was looking at the menu as well and seemed to see a few things that caught her eye.

Deeks and Lara both put down their menus as the waitress brought them their drinks.

“Thank you very much.” Deeks said as he inhaled deeply, enjoying the smell of the coffee.

Lara took a sip of her tea and closed her eyes as she savoured the taste.

“So,” Deeks began. “What was bothering you earlier?”

Lara seemed to think over actually telling Deeks the truth or being secretive. Eventually she spoke up, “Just personal stuff that’s all.”

Deeks seemed a little puzzled as he asked Lara, “What kind of personal stuff?”

Lara sat back in her chair with a sigh and replied, “You wouldn’t understand; besides it’s a long story.”  

Deeks gave he a reassuring smile as he said, “Try me.”

Lara took a deep breath and looked into Deeks’ eyes. “When we went to go look for Sam, something happened.”

Deeks suddenly turned into concerned, caring boyfriend mode. “What happened?”

“We were waiting in Callen’s car waiting for Sam show up. When he did he was talking on the phone, so I decided I would use my laptop to try and figure out who he was talking to.”

“And?” Deeks asked after Lara had paused.

Lara sat forward again and wiped a hand over her face as she replied, “Sam was talking to my brother.”

Deeks was truly gobsmacked at hearing this, his eyes almost popped out of his skull as he choked out, “Your brother?”

Lara gave a slight nod and Deeks asked again, “Your brother? I didn’t even know you had a brother.”

“Nobody at NCIS knew.” Lara said under her breath as she leaned forward in her seat.

“Not even Callen?” Deeks asked curiously.

“Not even Callen.” Lara admitted.

Deeks took a sip of his coffee and Lara took one of her tea. They sat in silence for a while just drinking their beverages. The young waitress came over to the two of them and asked, “Can I get you two anything else?”

Deeks looked to his girlfriend and asked, “Do you want anything else?”

Lara seemed to think it over and replied, “Well, you said they have the best cake in town, so I’ll try a piece of chocolate cake.”

“Make that two pieces.” Deeks added.

“Right away.” The waitress said as she wrote down the order and went to tell the kitchen.

“So,” Deeks began. “What’s your brother’s name?”

“My brother’s name is Navy SEAL Michael Baker, but everyone calls him Mick.” Lara said as she took her wallet out of her back pocket.

“Here’s a picture of him in his uniform.” Lara said as she showed Deeks a picture of her brother in his uniform.

“Wow, he looks a lot like you.” Deeks replied as he took the wallet from Lara’s hands.

“Thanks.” Lara said just as the waitress came over to their table with their cake.

The waitress placed their plates on their table and gave them a smile. She was about to leave the two when Deeks called her back and asked, “Can we have the cheque so long please?”

“Sure thing.” The waitress replied.

“Bon apetite.” Deeks said as he picked up his fork.

The two started eating their cake and Lara let out a satisfied moan.

“I told you this was the best cake in town.” Deeks said with a goofy grin.

“You were right.” Lara said.

They ate the rest of their cake in mostly silence, sharing the odd comment about this and that. Afterwards they headed back to NCIS and found that they had arrived just in time.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS: Los Angeles or any of the characters or concepts of the show. I only own Lara Baker ;)

#  Chapter 6

 

As Lara and Deeks walked through the doors of the NCIS building, they were met by Callen making his way to the stairs.

“Oh, guess I won’t need to call you anymore.” Callen said to the two as he put his phone back in his pocket.

“Did we get something?” Deeks asked.

“Yep, Eric managed to track Akim Kafne’s movement since he’s been in LA.” Callen said as he crossed his arms over his chest.

“Great,” Deeks said as he started walking up the stairs. Seeing that Lara obviously wanted to ask Callen something he said, “I’ll see you guys upstairs.”

As Deeks made his way to the top of the stairs, Lara asked quietly, “Where’s Sam?”

Callen looked over at Lara and replied, “I don’t know, I haven’t seen or heard from him since we saw him at the park.”

“Don’t worry, he’ll be fine.” Lara said as she put her hand on Callen’s forearm.

“Thanks, we better head upstairs.” Callen said.

“Sure,” Lara replied as she started walking up the stairs.

Callen was about to follow her when he heard a familiar voice say, “She’s just concerned for you Mr Callen.” Callen turned to see Hetty standing behind him. 

“I know Hetty,” Callen replied with a smirk.

“So am I,” Hetty added to her earlier note.

“I’m fine Hetty.” Callen replied, trying to sound reassuring.

“Head upstairs before we have a riot.” Hetty said with a smile.

“Will do.” Callen replied as he started to make his way up the stairs.

Callen entered the dimly light room and found everyone waiting around the table in the centre of the room, awaiting the information from the two tech geeks.

Eric and Nell didn’t even bother making a snide comment as they could see that Callen was not having a good day. They also felt bad for him because they knew the news they were about to deliver was only going to make it worse.

“What did you guys find out?” Lara asked Eric and Nell.

“We think we found out who the other guys are.” Nell replied.

“Well, who are they?” Callen asked.

“You’re not gonna like the answer.” Eric said.

“I don’t care Eric.” Callen replied angrily.

“Their names are Haviv Vardi and Tamir Arad.” Eric said as he brought the pictures of the two men onto the screen.

“They are currently on the terrorist watch list.” Nell added.

Callen gave a deep sigh and rested his head in his hands. Everyone stood in silence as they awaited the next orders from their team leader.

“Alright, Eric, Nell, see if you guys can find out when they arrived in LA and why they’re here.” Callen said. “I’ll go tell Hetty that we’ve got a bunch of terrorists on our hands.” Callen added as he walked out of the door.

The rest of the agents followed Callen downstairs but stopped at the bull pen and watched as Callen entered Hetty’s office. 

“Hetty,” Callen began as he walked up to Hetty’s desk.  “Sorry to bother you, but it looks like we have some terrorists on our hands.”

Hetty looked up from her paperwork and said with a sigh, “I’ll notify Director Vance,” Hetty seemed to look at something over Callen’s shoulder as she added, “I see your partner has finally come back.”

Callen tuned around at lightning speed and as soon as he saw his partner a smirk appeared on his features.

“Go and ask him what took him so long and find out where these terrorists will be attacking.” Hetty said to Callen with a smile on her own face.

“Thanks Hetty,” Callen said as he started walking towards his buddy. As he started walking towards Sam, he noticed that someone was standing behind Sam.

Lara looked up from her desk and as soon as she saw the familiar face she got up from her seat and said, “Mick!” as she ran over and embraced her brother.

Mick was nearly knocked over at the sudden hug he received from his sister. “Hey big sis, it’s good to see you too.”

Lara looked at her brother as she stepped away and lightly tapped his cheek with her hand. “You didn’t even tell me you were in LA.” She said a little angrily.

“Look, I know I didn’t warn you, but I didn’t even know that **_you_** were in LA. You just disappeared off of the grid.” The young brunette with rather big muscles and a cute face said.

“I know,” Lara replied with a sigh, but didn’t get to finish her statement as Deeks came over and put his hands on her shoulders and said, “I believe we haven’t met yet, I Detective Marty Deeks.”

Mick gave his sister a knowing smile as he said, “I’m Michael Baker, Lara’s younger brother.”

“Nice to finally meet you.” Deeks said as he shook Mick’s hand.

 “So, now that you’ve met the ever annoying Deeks,” Lara said as she shrugged Deeks’ hands off of her shoulders. “I want you to meet the rest of the team.”

Lara moved over to Sam and Kensi and said, “This is Special Agent Sam Hannah and Special Agent Kensi Blye.” Mick walked over to the two and shook both of their hands in turn.

Lara spotted out of the corner of her eye as Callen and Hetty started coming closer. “This is my ‘other brother’ Special Agent G. Callen and this is the famous Operations Manager, Henrietta Lange.” Lara said a she went over to Callen and Hetty.

“Looks like I have another bother I never knew about.” Mick said as he shook Callen’s hand with a smile. Mick bent down and shook Hetty’s hand and added, “Henrietta Lange I believe I might’ve heard that name somewhere.”

Hetty gave smile as she shook the man’s hand and replied, “Well, being a SEAL I would expect to have maybe heard it whispered.”  

The group shared a brief light hearted moment of laughter before they were interrupted by Eric and Nell coming down the stairs and saying, “Callen, we’ve got something.”

“We didn’t know we had guests.” Nell said a little sheepishly as she and Eric came over to the group.

“Oh, this is Eric and Nell the two tech gurus of NCIS.” Lara said to her brother.

Mick went over and shook their hands and said, “Hi I’m Mick, Lara’s younger brother.”

“Nice to meet you.” Eric said with a little bit of a confused expression.

“Um, sorry to ruin the meet and greet, but we have a major lead that you guys need to check out.” Nell said.

“What is it Nell?” Sam asked.

“These guys rented a warehouse in Downtown LA a couple of days ago and we think that might be their hideout.” Nell replied.

Everyone was suddenly on red alert as they started grabbing their gear. “Thanks Nell, send the address to our phones.” Callen said as he put his gun in its holster.

“Will do.” Eric said as he started typing on his tablet.

“Sam, Kens, you’re with me. Lara, Deeks, you two are together, let’s head out.” Callen ordered as he started going out the door.

“Sorry, we’ll catch up later.” Lara quickly said to her brother.

“That’s alright; you just go do your thing.” Mick replied. “I have to call Rebecca anyway.”

“Cool, I’ll see you later.” Lara replied as she followed Deeks out of the door.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS: Los Angeles or any of the characters or concepts of the show. I only own Lara Baker ;)

#  Chapter 7

 

Deeks and Lara were sitting at the entrance of the old warehouse. It was a fairly big building that didn’t look very welcoming. It had a few broken windows and some graffiti on the walls. Callen, Kensi, and Sam were sitting around the rear of the building waiting for something to happen. 

“This is so boring.” Deeks said with a sigh.

“How do we know if they’re even in there?” Lara asked with a little bit of anger.

“That’s what I was thinking.” Callen said over the ear piece.

“So, who’s Rebecca?” Deeks asked suddenly, letting his curiosity get the better of him.

“Oh, that’s my brother’s wife.” Lara replied nonchalantly.

“Your brother is married?” Deeks asked, not at all masking the disbelief in his voice.

“Yeah,” Lara replied with a shrug. “Is that a problem?”

“No,” Deeks began sheepishly. “It’s just that he’s your younger brother, so I would expect that you would get married first.” Deeks added matter of factly.

“Everybody always says that.” Lara replied with a sigh as she leaned back in her seat. “They think that I should’ve gotten married first and that my brother should still be single.”

“How old is your brother?”  Deeks asked as he turned to look at Lara.

“My brother is two years younger than me, which makes him twenty-five.” Lara said as she did some maths in her head.

“So when did he get married?” Deeks asked.

“He got married when he was twenty- three, so Rebecca was twenty-two. They were in the Navy together, but Rebecca decided to leave when she found out that she was pregnant.” Lara replied, remembering her brother’s excited face when he had first told her that he was expecting a child.  

“Your sister-in-law is pregnant?” Deeks asked unbelievingly.

“No, she got pregnant about a year ago; Sam is already a year old.” Lara informed Deeks. Lara took out her phone and showed Deeks a picture of the little blonde toddler.

“Wow, he’s cute.” Deeks said with a smile.

“Yeah, but I only get to see him every once in a while because of work.” Lara replied as her smile faded a little.

Suddenly they heard some noise in front of them. It was coming from the warehouse. Lara and Deeks sat up in their seats. Deeks grabbed his binoculars and Lara said, “Callen we’ve got movement on our side.”

“OK, we’ll keep our eyes open in case something happens on this side.” Callen replied.

“It looks like our guys are bringing something into the warehouse.” Deeks said to Lara as he watched through his binos.

“Can you see what they are carrying?” Lara asked from her seat next to him.

“It looks like they’re carrying some sort of crates.” Deeks said.

“Let me see.” Lara said impatiently as she leaned over Deeks and took his binoculars. “They’re carrying some sort of chemical, but I can’t read the label.” Lara said as she looked through the binoculars.

“See, I told you they were carrying nameless crates.” Deeks said sarcastically from his seat next to Lara.

“Should we move in Callen?” Lara asked irritably, trying to ignore Deeks’ sarcasm.

“Yeah, we’ll cover you guys from the back.” Callen said through his ear piece.

“Alright,” Lara began as she gave Deeks his binos back. “Should we use a cover story?” Lara asked quickly.

“If you can think of one.” Callen replied amusedly.

“Alright, let’s go.” Deeks said with a grin.

The two men were standing in the warehouse discussing something in Arabic, when a young woman burst through the door. She seemed frantic and in need of help.

“Excuse me,” Lara began. “Could you please help me, my husband has collapsed outside and I don’t know what to do!”

The two men shared a quick glance and the man with the sunglasses replied, “Show us where he is, we will help you.”

This was the signal for Callen to pick the lock on the back entrance so that they could sneak inside. As soon as Callen saw the two men walk outside he signalled for Sam and Kensi to follow him inside. Callen could hear Lara frantically explaining to the two men about her ‘dilemma’ as they walked over to Deeks who was lying on the ground.

Callen looked at one of the crates and read what was on it. The crate read, **_Ammonium Nitrate._**

“How did these guys get these huge crates of explosives into LA?” Kensi asked as she looked over the table that the men were working on.

“They probably have an inside source or something.” Sam replied.

“Guys, you better hurry.” Callen heard Lara mumble through his ear piece.

“On it.” Callen replied.

Nobody noticed the man come out of the shadows with an AK47 in hand.

“Hey what are you doing here?!” The man shouted.

“Time to go.” Callen said as he, Sam, and Kensi started running. 

The man started yelling something in Arabic and the other two men came racing into the warehouse just as Callen, Sam, and Kensi made it out of the door.

 “That’s our cue.” Lara said as she quickly helped him up.

Deeks took Lara’s hand and she helped him up. The two quickly ran over to Lara’s car and got in.

“Callen, are you guys alright?” Lara asked as she put her seatbelt on.

“Yeah, we’re good.” Callen replied as he, Sam and Kensi were driving out of the parking lot.

“Alright, we’ll meet you guys at NCIS.” Lara said as she started reversing.

“See you then.” Callen relied.

“Next time, you can be the one lying on the ground being prodded by Arabs.” Deeks said sarcastically.

“Whatever.” Lara replied with a chuckle.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS: Los Angeles or any of the characters or concepts of the show. I only own Lara Baker ;)

#  Chapter 8

 

Everyone was back at NCIS and all up in the Ops centre. They were huddled around the table discussing their findings.

“What would they be doing with Ammonium Nitrate?” Lara asked.

“It was used in the attack on the World Trade Centre and is highly explosive.” Sam replied.

“That’s not good.” Deeks muttered.

“That means we need to find these guys before they decide to actually use this stuff.” Kensi said.

“How do we do that?” Callen asked a little irritably.

“We could try to trace all activity on their phones.” Eric said.

“Thanks Eric, we still need to figure out why this Akim Kafni guy stole the identity of the Lance Corporal.” Callen said with a sigh.

“Well, we know that he was obviously working with the terrorists, but we don’t know to what extent.” Deeks said.

“Don’t forget that these terrorists also killed Akim Kafni.” Lara reminded.

“Maybe he was starting to think twice about blowing up something and decided to pull out,” Sam began.

“But the terrorists knew that time was running out and decided to kill him instead of risking blowing cover or getting caught.” Callen finished for Sam.

“But the big elephant in the room is, what are they going to blow up?” Kensi asked.

Everyone stood in silence for a while pondering over what could be at risk.

“Maybe they wanted to attack a Navy building or monument.” Sam said eventually.

“That makes sense since they stole the identity of a Navy guy.” Deeks said. 

“But what are they going to decide on?” Lara asked.

“That’s what we need to find out.” Callen said.

At that moment Lara’s phone started to ring and she excused herself to answer it.

“Hello?” Lara asked into the phone.

“Hey sis.” Lara heard her brother answer.

“Oh hey Mick, what’s up?” Lara asked.

“I think I have something about your case.” Mick replied.

“What do you mean?” Lara asked, suddenly curious.

“I’m here in LA for a little and I’m helping out with the USS Chepston, but there are some really weird people here.” Mick replied.

“What kind of weird?” Lara asked with concern clear in her voice.

“Well, people are looking at me weird and they seem very secretive.” Mick said to his sister.

“I’m sure you’re just exaggerating.” Lara replied with a small smile.

“I don’t think so.” Mick said. “Anyway, how is the case going otherwise?” Mick asked.

“We’ve hit a dead end.” Lara said as she leaned against a nearby wall. “But we did find the terrorists and the chemicals they are going to use.” Lara said.

“Yeah, what chemicals would those be?” Mick asked, amusement clear in in his voice.

“They had some highly explosive chemical called Ammonium Nitrate.” Lara said flatly.

But there was no reply from Mick, only total silence. Lara started to panic as she couldn’t hear her brother on the other side.

“Mick, are you still there?” She asked with concern clear in her voice. 

There was some shuffling on the other side of the line before Lara heard Mick reply, “Um, yeah, I’m still here. Did you say Ammonium Nitrate?” Mick asked cautiously.

“Yeah, why?” Lara asked with a look of puzzlement.

 “Well, because there are some guys here at the dock busy offloading crates of Ammonium Nitrate.” Mick replied a little sheepishly.

“What?!” Lara shouted. “What do they look like?” Lara asked hurriedly as she started making her way back to the Ops centre.

“Um, they have some sort of dragon tattoo on their arms and they have sort of Arabic looking features.” Mick replied.

Lara froze where she was standing and Deeks bumped into her as he came out of the Ops centre. “Whoa, Lara, are you OK?” Deeks asked as he noticed who he had walked into.

“Get everyone back into the Ops centre now.” Lara said with a serious expression.

“Why?” Deeks asked.

“Just because.” Lara replied as she walked through the doors of the Ops centre.   

Deeks shrugged and turned to get everyone from the bullpen area.

  **xxxxx**

Everyone was gathered up in the Ops centre once again and Lara’s cell phone was sitting on the table in the centre of the room with Mick on loud speaker.

 “Mick, Eric is going to send you a picture of the guys we saw.” Lara said to her brother.

“Alright.” Mick replied as Eric started typing.

There were a few minutes of silence as Mick waited for the pictures to come to his phone. After a while Mick said, “OK, I’ve got the photos. Yep, those are the guys that are here.”

Everyone shared a knowing look as they heard the words. Lara stood up straight and said to her brother, “Alright Mick, I need you to go and tell the CO of USS Chepston that there might be some terrorists on his boat and that we’ll be there as soon as we can.”

“I’ll get right on that, see you soon sis.” Mick replied as he put down the phone.

Lara picked up her phone and put it back in her pocket.

“I’ll go tell Hetty what’s going on.” Callen said as he walked through the Ops centre door. 

Everyone made their way downstairs to the bullpen and grabbed their firearms.

Callen walked over to the group and they all headed to get any weapons they might need.

  **xxxxx**

They had arrived at the dock and were greeted by Mick coming over to them and a crowd of Navy personnel coming off of the ship in front of them.

“Hey sis.” Mick said as he came over to his sister and gave her a big hug.

“Hey,” Lara replied as she returned the hug. “Are you OK?”

“Yes mother, I’m fine.” Mick said in a mocking voice.

Lara gave her brother a dirty look as Callen asked, “So, where are the terrorists?”

“We don’t know yet.” Mick replied.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Deeks asked as they all started following Mick to the ship.

“We evacuated everyone from the ship, but we didn’t see the Arabic dudes come out.” Mick said as he saluted the Captain standing at the entrance of the ship.

“Are you sure?” Sam asked Mick.

“As sure as I can be.” Mick replied.

“What do we do now?” Kensi asked as she followed everyone through a doorway into an empty room.

“We have to sweep the entire ship until we either find them or the bomb.” Mick replied.

“This will be fun.” Deeks replied.

“Alright, Sam you take Mick, Deeks take Lara, and Kensi and I will go. We spread out and stay in contact. Whoever finds something first, let us know and we’ll all come to your position.” Callen said.

With that the ‘teams’ spread out in search of the bombers and the bomb, but who could’ve known what they would find.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS: Los Angeles or any of the characters or concepts of the show. I only own Lara Baker ;)

#  Chapter 9

 

Lara and Deeks had been walking from room to room for a while just looking for something interesting or important.

“How hard can it be to find a bomb?” Deeks asked Lara as he looked through some cabinets.

“Quit whining would you?” Lara replied irritably.

Deeks started mumbling under his breath angrily and Lara just rolled her eyes.

“Bro, have you and Sam found anything yet?” Lara asked through her ear piece.

“Nah, we’re still sweeping the galley.” Mick replied.

“Alright, what about you Callen?” Lara asked as she bent down to look under some cupboards. 

“We got nothing too.” Callen replied.

“OK, we’ll keep looking.” Lara replied with a sigh.

Lara and Deeks were walking down the corridor to the next room when they suddenly heard a loud bang.

“That sounded a little like a gun shot.” Deeks replied.

“Yeah,” Lara began as she grabbed her gun out of her holster. “Callen, I think we heard a gunshot, we’re gonna go and check it out.” Lara said.

“OK, but be careful.” Callen replied.

“We will.” Lara replied.

She and Deeks started walking down the corridor towards where the gunshot had come from.

Lara motioned for Deeks to look at the floor where there was a puddle of blood leaking from under the door.

They both stood on each side of the door frame and Deeks counted down. 3…2….1…

They burst into the room, guns raised, and trying not to stand in the puddle of blood.

But the only person in the room was the dead guy on the floor.

Lara knelt down and felt for a pulse, but nodded to Deeks.

“Callen, it looks like one of the terrorists was shot, but he’s already gone.” Deeks said into his ear piece.

“Alright, so we know that one of the guys is taken care of, so we just need to look out for the other one.” Callen replied.

“Callen, I think this is Haviv Vardi.” Lara said as she compared the photo on her phone to the guy on the ground.

“So that just leaves Tamir Arad.” Callen replied.

“Yep,” Deeks said as he helped Lara up.

“OK guys; just keep your eyes open. We’ll have some guys clean up the body once we find the last blind mouse and the cheese.” Callen said, making an attempt at a joke to lighten the mood.

Lara gave a small smile at Callen’s attempt to lighten the mood, but admitted to herself silently that he wasn’t really good at jokes. 

“OK, we’ll keep our eyes peeled.” Lara replied as she and Deeks left the room.

 

**_ Sam and Mick: _ **

Sam had been listening to the conversation between Deeks, Lara, and Callen while he and Mick were still searching for clues.

The joke Callen had tried to crack had interested Sam though. Sam silently laughed to himself and mumbled, “That was a bad one G.”

They were looking high and low and had still found nothing. Sam was getting really tired and Mick was about to give up when he saw something interesting.

“Hey Sam, what do you think this is?” Mick asked as he picked up something that looked an awful lot like a bead.

“I don’t know.” Sam said as he came over to Mick and took the bead from his hand. “It looks like a Muslim prayer bead.” Sam added as he examined the bead more closely.

“Do you think it belonged to one these bomber guys?” Mick asked.

“Might be a possibility.” Sam replied as he looked under the cupboards for any more beads.

Both Sam and Mick started looking around for more beads just as Lara and Deeks walked through the door.

“What are you guys doing?” Deeks asked with pure amusement evident in his voice.

“We found one of these and we’re looking to see if we can find anymore.” Sam said as he showed Deeks the bead.

“What is it?” Deeks asked.

“It’s a Muslim prayer bead.” Both Lara and Mick replied at the same time.

“Oh,” Deeks replied.

Lara and Deeks joined in the hunt for more beads and boy were they a sight. They searched high and low until they found yet another little bead.

They eventually gave up looking for the beads, having found one each.

“Where do you think these beads came from?” Lara asked.

“I don’t know, all I know is that there is a funky smell coming from over there.” Deeks replied.

Everyone looked to where Deeks was pointing. The closet did look like it had been opened recently and Sam and Mick wondered why they had just looked over it.

Sam went over to the closet and opened the door. As soon as he did, a body fell out of the closet onto the ground. Everyone just shared a look of confusion.

“At least now we know where those beads came from.” Sam said as he bent down next to the body.

“It looks like someone used the beads around his neck to execute him.” Mick said.

“Yep,” Sam replied. “Looks like we found all of the terrorists.”

“But that can’t be right,” Lara said. “How could someone have shot the other guy if this dude obviously died first?”

Everyone looked at each other as they pondered over what was going on.

“Wait; there was another guy that was hired as some extra muscle.” Sam said as he remembered the guy that had confronted them in the warehouse.

“Maybe this is him, because he doesn’t look like any of the guys from the pictures you sent me sis.” Mick replied.

“But that means that there is another guy on the boat.” Deeks said.

“Yep,” Lara replied.

They were all standing there in silence just thinking when they heard Callen shout through his ear piece, “Guys the last terrorist just ran past us, we’re gonna go after him.”

Everyone quickly came back to earth and headed towards their team leader’s last position.

“Lara, Deeks, you two take the eastern corridor and we’ll take the western one.” Sam said as he and Mick ran down the corridor to their right.

Lara and Deeks ran down the corridor towards Callen and Kensi and heard a struggle as they neared the engine room.

When they entered the room they the last terrorist, Tamir Arad, lying on the floor with a pair of handcuffs and a bloody nose. Callen and Kensi were crouched in front of something on the floor and only as Deeks and Lara came closer did they realise that it was the bomb.

 “Whoa,” Deeks said as he and Lara slowly stood behind Callen and Kensi.

The timer on the bomb read **_35:00_** and the clock was still ticking.

“Does either of you know how to disable a bomb?” Lara asked cautiously.

Callen and Kensi both shook their heads. Lara let out the breath she didn’t know she was holding.

“Oh,” she said weakly as she holstered her weapon.

She and Deeks stood speechless as they watched the clock tick.

“What do we do?” Kensi asked Callen.

“We need to get a bomb expert, that’s what.” Deeks said sarcastically.

“A bomb expert will take too long to get here.” Callen said as he cautiously looked around the entire bomb.

“OK, well I guess we could get an expert on the line and tell us how to do it.” Kensi said.

“That would seem like the best idea.” Callen replied.

At that moment Sam and Mick came into the room and saw the bomb. They stood speechless as they saw the bomb slowly ticking down.

“Alright, well let’s get Eric to get an expert on the line.” Lara said quickly.

“OK, I’ll organise things with Eric,” Sam said as he walked out of the room.

“I’ll go and tell my CO what’s going on.” Mick said.

Lara and Deeks watched him leave and just stood by Callen and Kensi.

“What now?” Lara asked.

“We wait for someone to tell me how to disable a bomb.” Callen said simply.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS: Los Angeles or any of the characters or concepts of the show. I only own Lara Baker ;)

**Chapter 10**

"Alright, Deeks and I will give you some space." Lara said as she pulled Deeks out by the arm.

"Kensi, you should go too." Callen said as he looked at Kensi.

Kensi looked at Callen and replied, "No, you might need my help, this could be tricky."

Callen gave Kensi a small smile just as Sam walked in.

"The bomb expert's on the line." Sam said and left the room.

Callen heard a voice in his ear piece saying, "Agent Callen, I'm the guy that will guide you through this.I'm Lieutenant Rafael Sanchez. Everyone calls me RJ; I am on my way, but I will get you started over the phone."

Callen replied affirmatively and took a deep breath.

"OK." He paused to collect himself "Ready." Callen said and he shared a look with Kensi.

"Alright," RJ said. "I need you to look around the bomb and tell what you see."

Callen cautiously leaned forward and looked around the entire device.

"OK, I see about three blocks of military C4 and a lot of wires." Callen said as he sat back and took a breath.

"Alright, what does the timer say?" The Navy Lieutenant asked.

"Thirty minutes left." Callen replied. "So let's get on with this show." He added.

"Right," RJ replied. "OK, so do you see any specific colored wires?"

Callen and Kensi both looked around the bomb and OSP's senior agent replied, "I see a lot of blue, green, and red, wires."

"OK, how many are there?" The Lieutenant asked.

"There are about three of each." Callen replied as he counted the wires.

"OK, do you have any electronics on your person?" The Lieutenant asked with a concerned voice.

"Just my phone, and an ear piece," Callen replied as he took his phone from his pocket. "What about you Kens?" Callen asked as he turned to his partner in this endeavor.

"Um I have a phone, ear piece and a flash drive." Kensi replied as she searched her pockets.

"OK Agent Callen, I need those things removed from the room." Lieutenant Sanchez said.

"But how are you going to tell us what to do if we don't have the ear pieces?" Callen asked with a look of confusion.

"OK, well then you're going to have to wait until I get there." RJ replied.

"We can't wait that long, the clock reads twenty-five minutes." Callen said, his voice filled with frustration.

"Alright, then we're going to have to take a chance and see if this works." Lieutenant Sanchez said.

"And what if it doesn't?" Callen asked.

"Then you two have to get out of there as soon as possible and hope that your heads don't get blown off." Taking a corner on two wheels.

Callen and Kensi shared a look and an unspoken agreement. Everyone in the Ops centre and waiting on the pier took a deep breath and crossed their fingers.

"Alright, which wires do we cut?" Callen asked.

He shared a look with Kensi as Lieutenant Sanchez said, "You need to cut the wires going from the timer to the detonator."

Callen picked up the knife and was about to cut the wires when he paused and said, "Kens, if this thing blows us up I just want you to know that I love you and I always have."

Kensi looked shocked as Callen looked into her eyes and cut the wires.

They heard a long beep and looked at the bomb. Suddenly there was a light illuminating the timer and the time sped up.

"Shoot! The timer is speeding up!" Kensi yelled.

"What do we do, the timer is speeding up!" Callen yelled into his ear piece.

"There must have been a booby trap. Get out of there." Lieutenant Sanchez said.

"We'll never make it in time," Kensi said as she took Callen's hand in hers. "So I love you too."

Kensi gave Callen a small smile and his heart melted.

_**Screw this,**_ Callen thought.  _ **I finally get the girl, so I'm not gonna let her get away.**_

Callen pulled Kensi into his chest and grabbed his pocket knife.

Kensi looked into Callen's eyes and understood the chance he was going to take.

_**I trust you**_ , was what Kensi's eyes said as Callen looked into them.

Callen gave her a small smile and cut the other six wires all at once.

They held their breath along with everyone outside and in Ops.

After a while Callen lifted his head and looked down at the bomb. The timer had frozen at  **00:03.** Callen started laughing as Kensi lifted her head and looked at the bomb. She also stated laughing, which was all she knew how to do.

Callen took Kensi's face in his hands and gave her a crooked smirk that made her seal their dramatic day with a passion filled kiss.

When they broke for air they heard people running down the stairs and saw Lara, Deeks, Sam, and Mick appear in the hallway.

They all shared a smile as Deeks said, "I guess sometimes taking a chance can really pay off."

Everyone started laughing as Callen and Kensi stood up and the team came together for a group hug.

Just as they broke apart, Lieutenant Rafael Sanchez came down the stairs and said, "Looks like you might be out for my job Agent Callen."

Callen gave Lieutenant Sanchez a smirk and said, "Don't worry, I already know where I belong."

Everyone got off the boat and stood on the pier just happy to be on dry land.

"I vote we all go and get a strong drink." Deeks said as they stood their together.

Sam and Callen shared a look and said in unison, "Yep."

Lara went over to her brother and said, "Thanks for the help today."

Mick gave her a smile and a hug and replied, "No problem sis."

"I'll see you before you leave right?" Lara asked her brother.

"Of course." Mick replied. "I wouldn't leave without saying goodbye."

"I'll see you tomorrow for lunch then." Lara said.

"I wouldn't miss it." Mick replied.

They made their way back to NCIS and were met by Hetty, Eric and Nell.

There were hugs all around and Hetty said, "I'll get the scotch, Nell and Eric will set up the movie."

Everyone shared a confused look and Callen asked, "A movie Hetty?"

"I was thinking a James Bond or Indiana Jones." Hetty said with a smile.

"Awesome, I'm in." Deeks said as he started making his way upstairs.

Lara, Nell and Eric followed Deeks upstairs and Hetty went to her office.

Callen was about to walk up the stairs when a hand on his shoulder stopped him. He turned and saw Kensi smiling at him. He gave her a smile and she did something completely un-Kensi-like. She wrapped her arms around Callen's neck and kissed him passionately.

They pulled apart and Kensi smiled and said, "I wasn't mad at you earlier, I was just waiting for you to say those three words."

Callen wrapped his arms around Kensi's waist and said, "Well lucky for you, I have a great sister who said that I should tell someone if I like them."

Kensi gave a smile and said, "Well, I'm glad you followed her advice."

They shared one more kiss and made their way upstairs.

Little did they know, Hetty was watching the entire time and said, "It's about time." Hetty said as she carried the bottle of alcohol upstairs.


End file.
